Just when Bills fans were starting to get a little hope for the season, the team goes out and plays a real stinker of a game, and the dreams come crashing down to reality.

If there ever were a road game the Bills should have won, the contest in Oakland against the Raiders would be it. The Raiders were 1-4 coming into the game and had a hobbled Randy Moss, their controversial but sensational receiver. The Bills, tied for first place at 3-3, knew that this was their opportunity to prove once and for all that they were a legit playoff contender. Well, all bets are off now after that embarrassing 38-17 loss to Oakland.

To say the wheels came off the Bills wagon is a huge understatement. The porous Bills defense allowed the Raiders to rip off 416 yards, 122 of which came on the ground by Raiders running back LaMont Jordan. Jordan also scored three of the Raiders touchdowns. The Bills defense just couldn’t stop him. This story is getting very old fast: The Bills defense seems to regenerate stale running games of opposing teams. Case in point is the previous week when the Bills gave a booster shot to Curtis Martin, who ripped off 148 yards on 18 carries for a whopping 8.2 yards per carry average.

It just wasn't the Bills defense also. Kelly Holcomb couldn't complete a pass over 15 yards, his longest being a 14-yarder. Holcomb was K. Holcomb 19 of 27 for 159 yards and 2 touchdowns. The game plan left a lot to be desired also, as the deep threat was completely ignored. It marked the third game in five when Buffalo didn’t have a pass reception of 20 yards.

"It's frustrating because we feel like we've got guys like Lee and myself who are capable of making plays down the field," lamented Bills wideout Eric Moulds. "We came in thinking we could take a few shots, but it couldn't get anything done."

Holcomb felt the heat all day and maybe that’s the reason he didn’t have time to go long.

"Their defensive line is pretty good, they put pressure on us," reflected Holcomb. "I don't think I've ever been hit that much, even after the play was over. They had every guy in the secondary hurt, but I couldn't get any time to exploit that."

Holcomb acknowledged that there were a few calls for a long ball, but the pass rush prevented that.

"We had some (long pass) calls, but what do you do when you're having protection problems and you can't hold up when you go to seven-step drops?" asked Holcomb. "I'm trying to get it out of my hand as quick as I can just to make some positive yards."

Willis McGahee, who proclaimed himself as the best back in the NFL, didn’t live up to his own expectations.
"I'm the best back (in the NFL)," proclaimed McGahee before the Oakland game. "Case closed."

Asked about the Raider defense, McGahee said, "I'm not worried about what they're going to do, they better worry about what I'm going to do."

The Raider defense, hearing these words, preceded to make a mockery of them, humiliating McGahee every time he touched the ball.

McGahee gained only 50 yards on 16 carries. Who's the best back in the NFL now?

Bills head coach Mike Mularkey, couldn’t explain the collapse of both the offensive and defensive lines.

"They won in the trenches, no question," Mularkey said. "We lost the line of scrimmage on both sides. There was more pressure than we needed to have up front."

"Right now defensively we're not playing good enough, that's the bottom line," said Bills safety Lawyer Milloy.

Added in Bills free safety Troy Vincent, "I thought the offense played well enough for us to win. But defensively, we didn't do a fine job at all by any stretch of the imagination. We're not getting off the field, they're scoring points, and they're converting on third down. That all adds up to a loss."

Where do we start? Let’s start where all the focus has been since training camp:

Quarterback: Kelly Holcomb had the kind of game that forced J.P. Losman to the sidelines. Holcomb’s completion numbers weren’t all that bad, 19 of 27, but getting only 159 yards is unacceptable. He did throw for two touchdowns, but his longest completion was 14 yards. With the Bills playoff hopes dropping like a lead balloon, from this cheap seat up high, it appears to be high time to go back to Losman. He couldn’t do any worse than Holcomb and would be getting the playing experience he sorely needs.

The Bills Brass named Losman the starter last winter and then pulled the reins from him midstream. Time to get back to the game plan of developing Losman.

Running back: Willis McGahee set himself up for a huge downfall, and that’s exactly what happened in Oakland. By proclaiming to the world that he was the running back supreme of the NFL, it not only inspired the Raider defense to come out strong and stop him, it also may have angered the football Gods. Even if one is the high and almighty in their position, it’s best not to brag about it. Hope this is a lesson that will humble Willis in the future.

Offensive line: Probably the only worse offensive line in Buffalo lollygags on the University of Buffalo football field. There hasn’t been one really decent offensive lineman wearing the red, white and blue since the Super Bowl days of the early to mid 90s. Bills GM Tom Donahoe hasn’t properly addressed the dire need for a superior offensive line. That could be his undoing.

Defensive line: Pat Williams was a stud. To not sign him up to a long-term contract before his last year in Buffalo was yet another huge mistake by Donahoe. Losing Takeo Spikes at linebacker also hurt, but the view up here says that Williams was one of the main reasons the Bills were ranked as one of the top defenses the past few years.

Coaching: Mularkey and his hand picked gang of assistants are starting to resemble a ship of fools rather than what they were proclaimed to be in the first season. The offensive coordinator has to go. The game plans this whole season have been a farce. When Losman was in there, they didn’t use McGahee enough. Now with Holcomb starting, they seem to be thinking the same way they did when Losman started....throw the dink passes. It just isn’t good enough.

Then came the play halfway through the second quarter. Bills down 10-7, and they decide to go for it on 4^th and goal from the one yard line. What do they do? They hand the ball off to Daimon Shelton. This was Shelton’s first carry this season and he hasn’t hardly touched the ball the past few years. Shelton was stopped for no gain and the Raiders took over. Why they went to someone who was just taking up space on the bench rather than go with their workhorse, McGahee is beyond reason.

"We saw their front," defended offensive coordinator Tom Clements, "we thought we could sneak him through. It didn't work, but then the defense held them. We got the ball back and scored a field goal, anyway. So it didn't hurt us."

Wrong! The Bills needed the points right then and if they had gone for a field goal instead of a TD then, it could have swung the game around. Also, if they had ran McGahee and did score, then it would have been an even bigger turnaround. As it was, yet another example of sloppy coaching.

Prime time in New England: Next Sunday its to the house of Horrors in New England. It would have helped to have won this game to get a half game lead on the Super Bowl champion Patriots. Instead, the Bills showed the Master Mind, Bill Belichick, even more fodder for another astute game plan against the Bills. Look for an even worse slaughter next week on Prime Time TV!

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